I was lying on the couch one lazy Sunday evening ‘channel surfing,and doing my utmost to avoid the news channels. I find that watching the news these days only deepens my brooding sense of melancholia and re-awakens the primal urge to run away, wrap myself in animal skins and take up…

Seamus Heaney, considered by many to be the greatest Irish poet since William B. Yeats, texted his wife Marie a few hours before his death: “Do not be afraid!” How comforting these words were to her I do not know. They seem, however, appropriate words for a man who faced so many crises in his life, dealt with them with…

LUAIN -- On August 29, 1803, Samuel Neilson, one of the founders of the United Irishmen, died in Poughkeepsie, New York. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Neilson had made a fortune in business by 1790, then he dedicated himself to Irish politics. It was Neilson, a native of Ballyroney, County…

Within the written she resides 

in quiet assurance of her place. 

Lithe and languid, with regal mien, 

she glides from the page bearing gifts.

The mantle, flowing through the ages,

envelops her in verity profound.

Gently musing all the while, 

in soft tones of…

On a July day nearly 130 years ago, an unknown and homesick young Irish writer trudged along a busy London street. He stopped suddenly and stood still, for he thought he could hear the tinkling of water in the midst of the bustling thoroughfare. He followed the sound and found he was looking in a shop window. There…

BLACKBERRY TIME

Late August, given heavy rain and sun

For a full week, the blackberries would ripen,

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot

Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.

You ate that first one and its flesh was…

My Grandfather was John Joseph Scollan, Commandant, Hibernian Rifles.

He was at The GPO in Easter 1916 with James Connolly and Michael Collins and the seven signatories to the 1916 proclamation of The Irish Republic. I am presently researching his life, having just returned from Dublin.

Photo: The General…

On August 19, 1876, 140 years ago , the whaling ship Catalpa  was given a tumultuous welcome as it sailed into New York harbor. She had no whales…

LUAIN -- On August 22, 1846 Fenian poet John Keegan Casey (right) was born at Mount Dalton, Co. Westmeath. While only in his teens Casey began writing poetry for The Nation. After teaching in Cleraun and Keenagh, Casey gave up the profession to work for the Irish Republican…

The next time you make a trans-Atlantic phone call, raise a glass, smile and tip your hat to an ingenious Irishman; a man that Charles Darwin once described as being “like an odious specter.” This man had incurred the wrath of Darwin for daring to oppose…

In my last post, I confessed to my love of cheese and my nearly non-stop indulgence in it while traveling through Ireland in May. On quite a few occasions, I found cheese, especially goat’s cheese, paired with beets in a sweet-tangy combination that is — no pun intended — unbeatable! At Reg’s in Waterford, a…

David Goodall was born in 1931. One side of his family had Wexford ancestors who were on both sides of the 1798 Rising. Though he had no professional involvement in Anglo-Irish relations until 1982, Goodall had a lifelong scholarly interest in Irish and, especially, Wexford history. He was president of…

 

The scythe was invented in about 500 BC and first appeared in Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries. It was used mostly for mowing hay, and replaced the sickle for reaping crops by the 16th century as it was more efficient. As a farming tool, it remained in use for many years, even after the…

Racing fruitlessly after a tram that was speeding away from him, a young British soldier spotted a shy young woman, out for a stroll in Dublin City, on her day off from working as a governess in Merrion Square. Lillie Reynolds, a softly spoken young woman who had been raised in the Protestant faith, did not usually flirt…

Unlike most other Irish and Irish-Americans who fought in the American Civil War, Philip Kearny was born into a prominent and affluent family in New York City on June 1, 1815. The Kearny name, quite appropriately, came from the Gaelic "O Catharnaigh," derived from the word "cearnach," meaning "warlike" or “victorious.”…

I really love cheese, and ever since I was introduced to Irish-made cheese — from the great selection of Kerrygold cheeses like Dubliner, Blarney Castle, and Swiss to harder-to-find ones like Cashel Blue, Ardrahan, or St. Tola — I enjoy it as often as I can. When I go to Ireland, as I did in May, I order it whenever I see it on…

Vietnam – “A Prayer for Pierre” –…

Three of Ireland’s well-loved 18^th century Gaelic poets lie at rest in the graveyard of Creggan Church, near to my hometown of Crossmaglen, County Armagh. The poets, Filid Art Mc Cooey, Padraig MacAliondain and the rapparee poet Seamus mor MacMurphy sleep under the oaks and elms in the company…